A Ilha Formosa: The Beautiful Island.

Taiwan (formerly called Formosa by Portuguese explorers) is serious about business. Over the last half a century, a rather sleepy island in the South China Sea with few natural resources has transformed itself into one of Asia’s top-rank economic success stories. Taiwan now holds one of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves of more than $500 billion. However, this has come at a cost. Most cities are an ugly urban sprawl – enough to make a town planner weep. The air is often thick with a choking haze of pollution. People give enormous time and energy to the pursuit of business success – which often consumes them. The worship of ancestral spirits is common across the spectrum of society from the rural farmer through to the smart city socialite. There is a challenging belief system: spirit possession, various extremely ascetic and painful practices and superstitions complicating everyday life. The working class is huge in Taiwan – around 70% of the population. But the percentage of Christians among them is very low - they feel marginalised in the mainly middle class church. They find the emphasis on formal Bible study hard to follow and the classical Chinese script small and complex. OMF teams in Taiwan have developed “mini-Bibles”, portions of Scripture written in a contemporary style, in a large script, which are much more attractive to working folk who rarely read. This is just one of several creative ways developed to reach the unreached in Taiwan. OMFers also teach theology and work with university students, people living with AIDS, the homeless, young prisoners and gay commercial sex workers - very challenging.

Anna and I spent the week in Taiwan, visiting the OMF teams in three cities - Taipei, Chiayi and Taichung. The teams are experienced, hard-working….and perplexed! Taiwan is an open nation. Missionaries are able to come and work freely there. The percentage of believers is much lower than in Taiwan’s well-known neighbour. New workers are needed. Yet, there has been just one new long-term worker join the team in the past six years. It is a source of frustration and pain. Please pray.


Our holiday over New Year found us taking the bus up to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia with friends. We had a wonderful week of cool clear days, log fires, good food and relaxation. New Year’s Eve was “the wildest party ever” according to Aim as we first shared together about the challenges and triumphs of the year gone by, prayed for the year ahead and then got down to playing some of the noisiest, silliest party games ever devised by man! We spent a day climbing to the top of peninsular Malaysia’s highest peak: as we came out on the peak at nearly 7, 000 feet, we gave thanks to God for His goodness. A year ago Steve would never have dreamt of doing such a physically demanding climb.

Next week we’ll be travelling to Thailand for the New Ventures field conference where Steve will be giving the Bible readings and together we’ll be leading a workshop on member care. New Ventures folk work in a number of East Asian countries – seeking to reach into some very tough situations with the Good News. Pray for good preparation, for clarity of thought, for gripping presentation and hearts prepared to receive God’s Word.